NIRT: Synthesis and Application of Magnetic Nano- and Nano-Composite Particles

磁性纳米颗粒/纳米复合材料（铁磁、亚铁磁和反铁磁材料）在工业和生物医学领域具有广泛的应用前景，如催化、磁冷却、光学和记录器件、酶和其他生物材料的纯化、水净化装置等；然而，为了使其更广泛地适用，有一些关键问题需要仔细研究。首先是为特定应用合成所需的磁性纳米结构的能力，具有定制的尺寸、成分和形态；第二是扩大生产这些纳米材料的规模；三是了解纳米粒子在高梯度磁场中的大小依赖的磁性、相互作用，并结合这些动态相互作用来预测不同介质中的输运特性。该项目的总体目标是：(1)实验室规模合成具有定制尺寸，组成和形态的磁性颗粒和纳米复合材料；(2)高温环境下高浓度纳米粒子在线测量系统的开发；(3)合成粒子的新应用，如数据存储、记录和生物医学应用，如栓子；(4)解决大规模处理此类纳米粒子的规模问题。该NIRT团队由来自圣路易斯华盛顿大学化学工程系、机械工程系和电气工程系的研究人员组成，他们在纳米颗粒/纳米复合合成工艺、纳米颗粒测量和表征以及工业和生物医学应用测试方面具有专业知识。

PROJECT ABSTRACTCTS-0304649Magnetic nanoparticles/nano-composites (ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials) have many promising industrial and biomedical applications such as catalysis, magnetocooling, optical and recording devices, purification of enzymes and other biological materials, and water purification devices; however, there are key issues that need to be carefully researched for their wider scale applicability. The first is the ability to synthesize desired magnetic nanostructures for specific applications with tailored sizes, compositions and morphologies; the second is to scale up processes for production of larger volumes of these nanomaterials; and the third is the understanding of the size dependent magnetic properties, the interaction of nanoparticles in high gradient magnetic fields, and incorporation of these dynamic interactions in predicting the transport characteristics in different media. The overall objectives of this project are: (1) the laboratory scale synthesis of magnetic particles and nano-composites with tailored size, composition and morphologies; (2) the development of systems for on-line measurement of high concentration nanoparticles in high temperature environments; (3) the demonstration of synthesized particles for novel applications, in data storage, recording, and biomedical applications such as in embolics; (4) addressing issues of scale up for processing large volumes of such nanoparticles.This NIRT team consists of researchers from the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering in Washington University in St. Louis, with expertise in nanoparticle/nano-composite synthesis processes, nanoparticle measurement and characterization, and testing for industrial and biomedical applications.